David Vincent Meconi

About David Vincent Meconi

David Meconi served as editor of Homiletic & Pastoral Review from 2010 to 2022.

Homilies for November 2020

For All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, November 8, November 15, November 22 (Christ the King), November 29 (First Sunday of Advent) All Saints’ Day – November 1, 2020 Readings: Rv 7:2–4, 9–14 • Ps 24:1BC–2, 3–4AB, 5–6 • 1 Jn 3:1–3 • Mt 5:1 … [Read more...]

Super-essential Work amid COVID-19

Has anyone else been a bit taken aback in realizing that you are not an “essential worker”? Of course, we Jesuits are supposed to pray for, and in fact are all in dire need of, humility. So perhaps this should be the Lenten lesson my bro … [Read more...]

A Sacerdotal Summer

St. Ignatius of Loyola likened the “enemy of our human nature” to a cunning military strategist who sussed out each of our weakest defenses and thereby knew exactly where to strike. A war for souls is truly on, both on the individual as wel … [Read more...]

The Tender Heart

Where in any classical literature do men rejoice over wounds? In the ancients, injuries and lacerations bring about sorrow, if not revenge. But in the Gospel reading for Divine Mercy Sunday (Jn 20:19–31), we see a new understanding of v … [Read more...]

A Spirituality of Advent

Advent is a time of preparation. It has many parallels to Lent: we don the purple, we suppress the Gloria (awaiting the angels to sing it again for the first time at Midnight Mass), and we are given weeks to allow the Holy Spirit to prepare … [Read more...]

Jesus Offers Us His Sacred Heart

For millennia, the human heart has served as a living sign of love and affection. For the Greeks, the heart—or kardia—was where the nerves of all sensate animals met; but in humans, it was also the place where the soul enlarges, “when it des … [Read more...]

Easter Morning

The heart of our Catholic Existence is to replicate the Risen Christ’s life. It is not Good Friday that saves our souls, but Easter morning. For without our Lord’s victorious rising from the tomb, the ignominy of the Cross would have just be … [Read more...]

The True Christmas Exchange

Christ’s Striving to Take Flesh Anew

Christmas did not happen only in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago. The coming of Christ is not simply an historical event recorded deep in our human history. If it were, you and I would be historians but not Christians. The days of preparation … [Read more...]

The Stability of the Cross

The movements of Holy Week and Eastertide are enacted to bring the Christian people to the stability of a pierced love that cannot be shaken. Year after year, the Cross beckons and asks if we are faithful in our love, if we can stand with … [Read more...]

Munus Docendi

Fr. Karl Rahner (1904-1984) began as a faith-filled and imaginative theologian, someone who, even now, still provides unmatchable insights into the nature of divinity, and into the searching soul who longs to cleave to God. Rahner worked … [Read more...]

Father John Navone, S.J.

His obituary plus two of his articles.

Fr. John "Jack" Navone, S.J., died on Christmas Day 2016. He was one of our regular contributors, and will be missed by all of us at HPR, and those who faithfully followed his thoughtful essays. May he rest in peace! We are including two … [Read more...]

What Is Really At Stake for Catholic Voters in this Election

November 2016 Editorial

In his Republic, Plato argues that we all get the government we deserve. That is, the political leaders of any given people are a direct reflection of what those people hold dear. Does a society think riches are the defining characteristic … [Read more...]

The Slumber of Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday has come and gone, but is it not the symbolic day of our Faith on earth? In the 70s, a popular mantra arose that we are an “Easter people.” Yet the abuses continue, dissent is institutionally maintained, the wicked go unc … [Read more...]

The Pillars of Lent

The purifying Season of Lent is quickly upon us. We human persons are enabled to do something that lower creatures cannot, and higher creatures need not: to sacrifice and thus to learn to delay partial gratifications for even greater … [Read more...]